It is well known, especially in the medical and health-care communities, that incurable and potentially fatal diseases may be transmitted from infected persons to health-care personnel by inadvertent or accidental puncture of the skin of attending technicians during routine extraction of body fluids for laboratory analysis and diagnosis or during the administration of therapeutic drugs intravenously or intramuscularly by hypodermic means. Many of these punctures occur when the hypodermic needle is being returned to a protective sheath following extraction or injection in a process generally referred to as "re-capping the needle". The high, and increasing incidence of disease transmittable in this manner, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and the hepatic diseases such as Hepatitis-B and Hepatitis-non A and non B have raised grave concerns in the medical community, to the extent that some health-care professionals are leaving the field for fear of contracting a dread or presently incurable disease.
Since the discovery of these highly communicable diseases and the manner in which they may be transmitted from one individual to another many devices have been developed to reduce the risk and incidence of accidental "needle sticks". Among these developments is a protective shield for a needle receiver, the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,975 granted to Frist et al., wherein a collapsible disc surrounding the opening in the needle cap is disclosed. Said collapsible disc opens in response to the removal of the needle from the cap and provides a shield to prevent the user from being stuck by the needle in the event that entry of the needle into the sheath is not achieved while recapping the needle after use.
In other examples of the prior art, Masters et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,204 disclose a needle cap of a more nearly standard configuration equipped with a flared funnel-like shield surrounding the entry to the needle cap to guide errant needles into the opening in the cap and further provides a second shield of disc of funnel shape to remove the users fingers from the area proximate the target site. Similarly, Hymanson in U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,412 employs a funnel-shaped guard provided with a gripping means to retain the needle cap and to accommodate a plurality of sizes of said caps. Again similarly, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,927 Davis et al. disclose yet another funnel-like device to channel the used needle into the protective cap. Finally, Marvel in U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,618 discloses a Medical Safety Device which provides a shield with an elevated peripheral rim to protect the fisted hand of a person holding a test tube.
While all these examples of the prior art provide some manner of protection and benefit to the user, none have addressed the most critical issue and the principal reason that needle strikes occur; the proximity of the hand to the target area when re-capping a used hypodermic needle.
It is the object of the present invention to provide an intravenous admixture protective device with a means for preventing needle strikes when inserting and removing admixture needles, having means to securely attach said protective device to the admixture site, to the primary intravenous tubing and comprising means for preventing accidental disconnection of intravenous admixture tubing while providing a safe location for the storage of needle caps and a safe method for re-capping used hypodermic needles.